*And because folks have asked, here it is: Sadaya's latest updated epic on the C-plan
for Sadaya's in person dance circles and events:
Very short version--simply the plan for safety and health protocols:

We will 

1.    Be all welcome (no requirement to be vaccinated to attend)

2.    Gather indoors to prevent having to cancel due to air quality (if air quality is good and folks are warm enough, we will open windows)

3.    Wear masks

4.    Wash/or use sanitizer on hands before and after dance circle (and please leave circle to go wash your hands if you end up touching your mask/face during the circle)

​

(extra) Long version: 
What we are and are not doing about Covid risk at Sadaya’s Dance Circles and why (updated from the article I wrote on this subject for East Bay Sufi Camp)
 
In the survey results I did for EB camp some time ago, some folk said they would only come if everyone wore masks while others said they would only come if you did not have to wear masks. Some said they would only come if everyone was vaccinated, and others that they would only come if you did not have to be vaccinated. Thus I was reminded of an aspect of the human condition: there is no way to please everyone, we can only do the best we can. Note that although it has resulted in some changes, the advent of Delta has not brought together a more homogenized (or harmonious) opinion on these issues. I will do the best I can to continue our dance circle regardless.
 
What I have realized lately is that even people who would normally think more intellectually and strategically about risk, are not necessarily doing so at this time. For many, those functions have gone offline. It is a known fact that the miraculous fight and flight response we evolved to save us in microseconds takes precious blood away from our thinking brain in order to give our legs more juice to run away from apex predators. So it is not surprising that it is more difficult to sort through the barrage of information coming relentlessly our way in recent times. Many may even find their nervous systems stuck in a kind of pandemic overdrive. It has been going on for so long now that the result is a default pinball setting which bounces the poor person from news article to article, and serves only to make them more anxious and cumulatively cautious over time.

Where we are in our neck of the world, in the vaccinated liberal left, we have been shown to be more prone to overreaction in our fear of the virus, while we look in dismay at the people who have become stuck in fear of the vaccine and government control. Either way, what we have in common is a tendency to become more fear than fact driven, and only more entrenched over time.

It is worth mentioning too that only a short while ago many of us thought all this might be ending soon. Now many of us realize that this particular life condition could be with us for a long time. We grieve and let go, and then it can be hard to open up to hope again, to believe we can really have some treasured things of the past, or that they will still be good enough even if they are no longer the same. 
 
I invite us to hold ourselves gently around all of it--the anxiety about all the little decisions we and everyone else have been left to make in this changing field, the vaccinated vs the unvaccinated, the wanting to be together and the wanting to be safe, the wanting everyone to be safe. 

Please note that I have given all this a great deal of thought. Below is as much of it as I could reasonably put to paper. 

1) Outside transmission risk for everyone is extremely low, estimated below .1%. Of course it would be preferable to have our dance circles outside for the foreseeable future----but we are in the midst of climate change in California which means drought and a prolonged fire season. Of the following choices for dance circles: to plan what could be cancelled at last minute due to air quality, continue indefinitely on Zoom, forego dances for months until we are out of the fire season, or meet inside---I would much rather we meet inside! 

2) Here in California, anyone concerned about the risks of Covid, who follows the conventional wisdom, will already be vaccinated by now if they are able and we have a high vaccination rate in Alameda County. I just peeked and it was even better than I thought. 89.4 % of those over age 12 have had at least their first shot. 76% are fully vaccinated.

3) Anyone who is concerned and either unable to get vaccinated or is unvaccinated by choice, is unlikely to attend an in person Sufi event at this time (or will feel it is sufficient to wear a mask indoors---and will really appreciate that we all do).

4) People who are vaccinated often wish these days to be in gatherings only with other vaccinated people. But it is really worth remembering that vaccinated people are highly unlikely to get infected from unvaccinated people (and vice versa) and even less likely to get infected from other vaccinated people. 
 
5) There has been a somewhat new fear lately that vaccinated people can still get and transmit a breakthrough infection to their grandchildren or other vulnerable folks who are not able to be vaccinated at this time. It is worth thinking through the likelihood of each of these steps at our dance circle:
 
a)  The Chance of a vaccinated person getting a breakthrough infection is 1 in 5000. That means your chance of merely getting a breakthrough infection at all post vaccination is considered to be the same as the chance of getting killed in a car crash when you drive. Those are also the odds of dying in childbirth if you are white and most women if they want children do not consider risk of death in their decision whether or not to conceive. The article notes below that re: the odds of a breakthrough infection being 1/5000 “and even lower for people who take precautions or live in a highly vaccinated community.”  That does not mean it never happens--it does, but it means that it is at such a low level of risk that we do not normally determine how we live our lives by it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/07/briefing/risk-breakthrough-infections-delta.html

That means when you multiply the chances of one vaccinated person having a breakthrough infection (1/5000) by the odds of that person giving another vaccinated person a breakthrough infection (1/5000) you have only 1/25,000,000 (million) chance of that happening. According to the National Weather Service, a person has a 1/15,300 (much higher) chance of getting struck by lightning in their lifetime, defined as an 80-year span. If you do not concern yourself overmuch with that, you likely should not with this. If you only worry about an unvaccinated person giving you a breakthrough infection, then you still are left with the very rare 1/5000 chance, also knowing there are a lot fewer of them at a dance circle of mostly vaccinated people because it is not a rock concert.

*Some people just do not want to deal with any covid risk at all. But that is not how life is--there are always risks and we are always balancing those risks against other criteria such as quality of life, our values, and what gives us joy. 

 
b)  Symptomatic people are not going to come to our circle. Even if you think that people in our community might be so inconsiderate, everyone automatically monitors too closely and it has now become way to embarrassing to look ill or feverish in public nowadays, no less dare to sneeze or cough (so that rules out a lot of potential transmitters), so the concern for that 1/5000 chance of breakthrough infection would be from one of the few unvaccinated to come, who was infected but only during a limited pre-symptom window. 
 
c) Any transmission of this highly unlikely breakthrough infection would have to occur through two layers of mask (we will all wear masks indoors)—yours and the other person. You can at least control the quality and effectiveness of your own if you are concerned.
 
Please note that Alameda County is fairly conservative and has had a higher standard of precautions even than much of the state. They have a robust public health department that studies the latest information and consults frequently in meetings as to the best way to proceed. If they say it is okay for now to meet in medium groups indoors in masks, then to me it seems reasonable to do so. 
 
The reason that differential guidelines for vaccinated and unvaccinated were discontinued for businesses, was due to the existence of unvaccinated people in public spaces and there being no way to assure they wore masks if others did not and transmissions among unmasked unvaccinated was driving up numbers of cases. So we are in a sense all wearing masks when gathered indoors to support keeping Covid cases low among unvaccinated.

6) The people most at risk are the unvaccinated, and they are most at risk from other unvaccinated people. When we all take precautions, we make it safer for them and also for the larger community by encouraging them to take more precautions because it is normalized. I also am aware there are special minority groups such as folks who are unable to muster sufficient immune response to the vaccine, or unable to take the vaccine due to specific health conditions. Everyone wearing masks indoors will support their being able to attend if they wish as well.

7) Often the people attending an event who are least at risk (vaccinated) want those most at risk (unvaccinated) not to come. Many times that stance is purely emotional. There are vaccinated folks who are simply upset with the unvaccinated. Alternately, there is the desire to be more safe and free of precautions. That seems far more common than some idea of trying to protect the unvaccinated. The vaccinated are already safe though. The smaller number of unvaccinated are reasonably so as well when we are all wearing masks. 
 
8) The alternative to wearing masks indoors, would be to require proof of vaccination for our gathering, and exclude the unvaccinated. Some community hosts may feel this is a way to promote vaccination which is better for everyone, or they may not want to feel responsible in case someone becomes ill, or they may wish to increase the freedoms of those who attend for maximum enjoyment, and that may be the best thing for them to do by their lights. Imperfect times call for imperfect solutions and there are pros and cons to many of these decisions. 
 
7) That said, I have to host in a way that I am able to stomach, and gate keeping and excluding members of our community or folks that really wish to be there is not something I am personally comfortable with.  I have a dear friend that will likely not come because she does not want to have to wear a mask. For me, I have been teaching Zumba and Yoga while wearing a mask for the last month and a half. I did have to increase my tolerance and adapt to exercising in a mask. 22 people of all ages attended my zumba class this week and wore masks for an hour of high energy dancing. That is because they wanted to be there bad enough—and it is so worth it! 
 
For most, not wanting to deal with wearing a mask is again more of an emotional decision; just not wanting to deal with it and that is certainly their choice. It takes both acceptance and adjustment to overcome the annoyance of wearing a mask. But I would much rather someone choose not to come because they do not like my choice of protocols, rather than me be the one to tell them they cannot come.
 
It helps too that I can see certain beloveds in my mind’s eye that I would be turning away, so contrary to my heart. I know that they are unvaccinated but I do not know why and I do not feel it is my business to ask, but I definitely want them to be able to come to my dance circle if they wish and it is certainly worth it to me that we wear masks for them to be able to.
 
8) It is not the Sufi way to give way to judging or attempt to single people out for their choices or police them into complying with measures they may or may not ascribe to as if for their own or even the common good. We all take our own precautions and risks wherever we are in life whether at an event or not. Although we certainly care about the wellbeing of everyone, we also recognize that each person is dealing with all the complexity of being human in these times and there are reasons for everything---if this were a simple issue for everyone, it would already be solved. We do hope for everyone to be safe and fully informed about the risks. We also hope that people will have the generosity, kindness, and compassion to not make this an issue for anyone at our dance circle.
 
9) That is not to say that other people’s choices are not impacting the course of the pandemic and its management, and all of us in one way or another, as indeed they are. That situation; however, is best handled at the level of government and public education, or with tact one to one where there is trust and a receptive ear. It cannot be well remedied in spiritual circles through additional criticism and alienation.
 
10) Our job, (thank heavens), in the spiritual sense as I see it of Love, Serve, and Remember, means that in this context we get to focus on our oneness beyond differences that divide and find a way through the noise of the world to meet outside that place of “right doing and wrong doing” to sing and pray. Certainly, when we do that, we provide a balm against fear and increase the loving-kindness overarching web of support in the world. That helps everyone better access their higher mind and take the best actions of which they are capable. It is okay for us to take that time to kneel on the ground and pour water on the roots, to nurture the deeper foundations for each other instead of using up our reserves fighting fires on the surface.
 
So we will sing, dance, and pray together. What a blessing that we have this great means to co-create together!
And Blessings on our collective, on our peace of mind and heart, our strength of spirit and our comfort and certitude as we are cradled in the hands of the One
Toward the One
X0x0x0x0x
---Sadaya